Node-Kayles on Trees

Abstract

Node-Kayles is a well-known impartial combinatorial game played on graphs, where players alternately select a vertex and remove it along with its neighbors. By the Sprague-Grundy theorem, every position of an impartial game corresponds to a non-negative integer called its Grundy value. In this paper, we investigate the Grundy value sequences of $n$-regular trees as well as graphs formed by joining two $n$-regular trees with a path of length $k$. We derive explicit formulas and recursive relations for the associated Grundy value sequences. Furthermore, we prove that these sequences are eventually periodic and determine both their preperiod lengths and their periods.